Publications & Documents

After a period of relatively robust growth that has allowed tens of millions of poorer households to join the global middle class, growth in Latin America has slowed recently, partly as a result of external factors. To close the still large gaps in living standards in relation to advanced economies, the region needs to significantly raise productivity growth while making sure that everybody has the opportunity to benefit from it. This will require comprehensive structural reforms, supported by a pro-productivity policy framework that incorporates social inclusion considerations from the outset.

The publication presents a comprehensive overview of recent and longer term trends in productivity levels and growth in OECD and some G20 countries. The statistics presented include measures of labour productivity, capital productivity and multifactor productivity, as well as indicators of international competitiveness.

This review analyses the governance and institutional framework of digital government in Chile. It is based on the OECD Recommendation on Digital Government Strategies. It first benchmarks the institutional arrangements of ten advanced countries in the field of digital government, assessing their strategies, digital government units or bodies and policy levers, as well as the co-ordination mechanisms in place. The review then provides an in-depth look at the institutional set-up of digital government in Chile. The assessment reveals that the governance of digital government in Chile would benefit from a stronger legal basis, providing the unit leading the work on digital government with a better grounding and the necessary levers to drive the digital transformation of government and public services. Based on this analysis, the OECD advances two alternative recommendations to strengthen the institutional framework of digital government to foster public sector productivity, enhance efficiencies and improve service delivery. The strengths and weaknesses of the alternatives discussed in detail. The review includes a roadmap for the implementation of both alternatives.

The landscape of tax services, traditionally provided by parties such as tax advisors, accountants and other tax practitioners, is changing, thanks to new technologies and services such as online accounting and filing, mobile devices, and machine-to-machine communication. This may lead to more integrated tax systems, in which taxation is part of the day-to-day operations of SMEs. This report provides an overview of relevant technological and business developments and new service solutions. It also explores how these influence SMEs, tax service providers and tax administrations – and the way that they co-operate. Tax administrations can adopt different types of network strategies for co-operating with tax service providers. The report identifies four basic network strategies. In countries without an established tax service provider infrastructure, such as developing and emerging economies, leveraging new technologies (such as online services and mobile payment) may create new possibilities for providing infrastructure that is both beneficial for SMEs and promotes tax compliance.